This book reimagines mergers and acquisitions as emotionally charged, narrative-driven processes rather than linear business events. Challenging traditional models that separate pre- and post-acquisition phases, it introduces a dynamic framework that emphasizes the sequence and emotional impact of acquisition-related communications. At its core is a focus on middle managers-key yet often overlooked actors-whose emotional responses to evolving narratives shape the success or failure of an acquisition.
The book captures the systemic-constructivist emphasis on relational, process-oriented, and meaning-centered approaches to managing change-especially in the emotionally charged context of M&A-contrasting with more linear, control-driven frameworks.
Drawing on national and global case studies, the book explores how fear, hope, anxiety, and relief emerge from how and when messages are delivered. It proposes a shift from sole authorship, typically attributed to acquiring CEOs, to a model of contributorship where both acquiring and target CEOs co-author the acquisition story. This shift enhances narrative legitimacy, coherence, and emotional alignment.
The book introduces a circular storytelling model, showing how acquisition narratives are not isolated events but evolving sequences that influence and respond to stakeholder emotions over time.Through a systemic and constructivist lens, it offers practical insights for structuring emotionally intelligent communication strategies that support smoother transitions and long-term integration.
Compelling for scholars and practitioners alike, this work bridges theory and practice with a systemic approach, redefining M&A success with a resource orientation and solution focus building on the power of story and emotion. In a field hungry for quick fixes, this is a radical-and deeply humane-stance.
Veronika Sweet lives in Munich with her Canadian-German family and happily navigates the wonderfully ambiguous landscapes of complex organisational development, often across languages and cultures. A committed multiperspective thinker, her path includes three academic degrees in three countries and a doctorate on narratives and emotions in mergers and acquisitions. She works, teaches, and researches from a systemic perspective in coaching, supervision, and organisational development, with a particular passion for processes in which people experience themselves as capable, and meaningfully involved.
